November 24, 2025

Merkley, Wyden, Western Senators Call for Emergency Funding for Wildfire Recovery on Federal Lands

Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined fellow Western Senators to urge Congress to pass additional funding to support wildfire recovery on federal lands. In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), the Senators pressed for additional resources to help National Parks, National Forests, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands recover from this year’s devastating wildfires. Since damage to federal lands is not covered by FEMA funding, federal land agencies are responsible for cleanup and restoration on their own.

The letter was led by U.S. Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and in addition to Merkley and Wyden, signed by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).

“We write to request that any emergency disaster appropriations bills drafted this year include funding for wildfire recovery on federal lands,” the Senators wrote. “Repairing wildfire damages to National Parks, National Forests, and Bureau of Land Management Lands is vital for the safety and economies of the entire country. Just as our forests and parks require restoration, so too do the surrounding counties and communities that bear the economic and infrastructure impacts of these disasters; their recovery is inseparable from that of the federal lands themselves.”

Specifically, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area in Oregon, North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado, Joshua Tree National Park in California, and Gila National Forest in New Mexico all suffered wildfires this year. Nearly one million acres of BLM land burned across the West in 2025 alone.

“As you know, unlike wildfire response activities on state, tribal, or private lands which are coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), wildfire response on federal land is managed by the land agencies themselves. In the past, Congress has appropriated the funds our public land agencies require for their critical response, remediation, and mitigation activities,” the Senators continued. “Ensuring that federal lands are restored after wildfires is a responsibility to our shared, national heritage.”

Read the full letter HERE.